Early Modern English (ca. 1500) slang term meaning "beggar's child". Possibly from Scots bratchet.

• (British) IPA: /bɹat/
• (America) enPR: brăt, IPA: /bɹæt/

brat (plural brats)

1. (slang) A human child.
   1. (pejorative) A child who is regarded as mischievous, unruly, spoiled, or selfish.

      Get that little brat away from me!

   2. (slang) A child (at any age) of an active member of the military or the diplomatic service.

      an army brat

   3. (BDSM) A sub (submissive partner in sexual roleplay) who is disobedient and unruly.
   4. (slang) A proudly hedonistic young woman.
2. A turbot or flatfish.
3. (historic) A rough cloak or ragged garment.
4. (obsolete, UK, Scotland, dialect) A coarse kind of apron for keeping the clothes clean; a bib.
5. (obsolete) The young of an animal.
   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC ↗; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act III, scene iii ↗:

     Their ſhoulders broad, for complet armour fit,
     Their lims more large and of a bigger ſize
     Than all the brats yſprong from Typhons loins:

   • 1680, Roger L'Estrange, Citt and Bumpkin:

     They are your Will-Worship-men, your Prelates Brats: Take the whole Litter of’um, and you’ll finde never a barrel better Herring.

• See also Thesaurus:child.

• French: morveux, morveuse, peste, sale gosse, garnement, mal élevé, mal élevée
• German: Balg, Göre, Gör
• Italian: monello, moccioso
• Portuguese: pirralho, mimado, pirralha
• Russian: (невоспитанный/надоедливый) ребёнок
• Spanish: mimado, malcriado, malportado, mocoso, niñato

brat (third-person singular simple present brats, present participle bratting, simple past and past participle bratted)

1. (BDSM, intransitive) To act in a bratty manner (as the submissive).
   • 2021, Ardie Stallard, Switch: A Tale of Spanking, BDSM & Romance:

     Ruthie was Ed's own submissive, a short, pretty, feisty ash-blonde New York City native who combined her submission to Ed with a good deal of mischievous bratting and a lot of sharp, intelligent conversation […]

   • 2020, Jessica M. Kratzer, Communication in Kink, page 43:

     Rather, Ana moves between playful bratting and a type of “conquer me” wantedness that good Dominants would respond to with increased control and correction.

brat

1. Fierce and authentic.

Shortened from bratwurst, from German Bratwurst.

• (America) enPR: brŏt, IPA: /bɹɑt/

brat (plural brats)

1. (informal, Upper Midwestern US) Bratwurst.

brat (plural brats)

1. (mining) A thin bed of coal mixed with pyrites or carbonate of lime.

brat (uncountable)

1. Initialism of bananas, rice, apple sauce, toast: the basis of a diet formerly recommended for an upset stomach.